Kevin Naze column: First fish of season stocked in area rivers

Mar. 7, 2013

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The Ahnapee and Kewaunee rivers will receive hundreds of thousands of young trout and salmon from Department of Natural Resources fish hatcheries this year.

Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery supervisor Steve Fajfer trucked a load of more than 10,000 Seeforellen-strain brown trout to the Ahnapee River near Forestville Monday, the first of many stockings of brown and rainbow trout and chinook and coho salmon set for county waters this year.

The 5- to 7-inch fish are raised in hatcheries from eggs taken out of mature spawners that return to Lake Michigan tributaries.

Some years, there are a few bonus brook trout planted by the DNR, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plants lake trout — most of them miles off shore above historic offshore reefs in an effort to boost natural recruitment.

In an effort to allow alewife stocks to rebound this year, chinook stocks will be reduced by all four states surrounding Lake Michigan beginning this spring.

All told, the reduction will be about 50 percent, but Michigan — where much of the natural chinook reproduction is taking place in rivers — took the largest share of the cuts.

In other fishing news this week:

• Kinn’s Sport Fishing — the largest charter fishing operation on Lake Michigan — will be moving its boats to the Algoma City Marina this year because of low water levels at Sunrise Cove.

Recent dredging operations in the city marina created an additional three feet or so of draft, allowing more clearance for the larger vessels.

• Yellow perch season on Green Bay waters ends March 15, and shacks must be off the bay by March 17. Portable shelters can still be used after that. Shacks already have to be off the county’s inland lakes.

With two feet of ice or more (and plenty of snow insulating it right now), this could be one of the years you’ll be able to jig for panfish inland or try for whitefish, walleyes, pike or brown trout right up until April.

LTH turkey program

First-time youth and adult hunters can participate in a free Learn To Hunt wild turkey program with a short class at 4 p.m. March 27 followed by hunting with experienced mentors between March 29 and April 7.

The class will take place at the Black Ash Gun Club, and include shooting a shotgun, hunting tactics, turkey hunter safety and turkey biology. The hunts will take place on private land in Kewaunee and Door counties.

Beginner youths and adults are both welcome, and no experience is necessary. Mentors are provided, or family members and friends with at least five years of turkey experience can be mentors.